Neruda is one of the most-read poets in history. His collection Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair sold over a million copies in Spanish and has been translated into more than twenty languages, including Chinese and Russian. In addition to writing what is considered some of the greatest poetry of the twentieth century, Neruda was an essayist, translator, playwright, and novelist. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. Neruda's career is divided into three periods, each of which shows a particular range of interests and artistic styles. The first period extends from 1921, when he began writing serious verse, to the beginning of the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The second is marked by the end of the war in Spain in 1939 to Neruda's return to Chile in 1952 after three years of exile for his political beliefs. The final period begins with his return to...